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Mission record

Venera 16

Also known as Venera16

Soviet Academy of Sciences · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Success

One of a pair of Soviet spacecraft designed to use 8 cm band side-looking radar mappers to study the surface properties of Venus. The two were inserted into Venus orbit a day apart with their orbital planes shifted by an angle of 4.45 degrees relative to one another, so that an area could be reimaged if necessary, each in a nearly polar orbit with a periapsis at 62 N latitude. Together they imaged the area from the north pole down to about 30 degrees N latitude with a resolution of one to two km over the 8 months of mapping operations, completing the primary mapping mission on 10 July 1984.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Proton Booster Plus Upper Stage and Escape Stages
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Orbiter, Observatory

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched on a Proton-K booster from Baikonur Cosmodrome

    The launch/orbital information page prints 1983-06-07T02:32:00Z, recorded at minute precision because it prints a whole minute with zero seconds, and the master catalog gives the same time, 02:32 UT. Both pages name the booster in their own text as a Proton-K while printing Proton Booster Plus Upper Stage and Escape Stages under Launch Vehicle.

    Earth

  2. Orbit insertion

    Entered a near-polar Venus orbit

    The master catalog records that after two course corrections it arrived at Venus and went into a 977.3 x 67,078 km altitude, 24 hour, 34 minute period orbit on 14 October 1983 at 06:22 UT, a full date and time in one sentence. THE TWO PAGES DISAGREE ON THE DATE: the launch/orbital information page's Venus orbiter row starts its epoch at 1983-10-11 00:00:00, three days earlier, and gives a 24.00 hour period at 92.500 degrees inclination - the same row values it prints for Venera 15. Recorded rather than resolved; the record follows the master catalog, which is the page that prints a date and a time together. The detailed account and NASA history agree onOctober14. Older orbit/PDS mission metadata instead sayOctober11; they are not treated as a second insertion.

    Venus

  3. Milestone

    Began radar mapping

    The detailed current mission description and NASA history date the start of mapping to this day. Full science operations and later orbit changes are distinct.

    Venus

  4. Milestone

    Venera 16 entered its reported operational mapping orbit

    NSSDCA reports 944 × 65,336 km apsis altitudes with periapsis at 62 degrees north. The source does not give a complete orbit orientation or phase.

    Venus

  5. Milestone

    Primary mapping mission completed

    The master catalog records that Venera 15 and 16 completed their primary mapping mission on 10 July 1984 and began an extended science mission.

    Venus

  6. Mission end

    Contact lost, ending the mission

    The master catalog records that Venera 15 and 16 completed their primary mapping mission on 10 July 1984 and began an extended science mission, and that on 13 June 1985 Venera 16 received a command that was transmitted to Vega 1, the two probes sharing the same frequency, which caused an unnecessary orientation maneuver that used up its remaining attitude control propellant so that it could no longer be oriented and contact was lost, ending the mission.

    Venus

  7. Milestone

    Two course corrections en route to Venus

    The master catalog records two course corrections, on 15 June and 5 October. Carried without a timestamp because the sentence that prints those days prints no year.

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Venera 16 · Orbiter

    Destinations: Venus

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

Known dates and encounters do not uniquely determine a flight path. This mission’s sourced timeline is available above; no verified trajectory is currently published here.

What is needed to reconstruct this path?
  • A frame-qualified position and vector velocity at an epoch, or equivalent complete orbital elements.
  • Approach/departure directions and burn vectors between the reported encounters; body names and encounter distances alone are insufficient.
  • Finer event-time constraints where required by an orbital reconstruction; the stored day/month/year precision is retained.
  • Epoch-qualified cruise and encounter position plus vector velocity, or complete elements with frame and actual maneuvers.
  • Original observation clock convention, geographic frame and uncertainty for descent/surface constraints; rounded coordinates are not survey locations.
  • Measured spacecraft attitude and component mounting transforms; design pointing modes alone do not determine orientation.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 12, 2026